Poultry equipment for broilers

1. What is a broiler?
Broiler chickens are
grown for their meat.
These chickens are the
ones we purchase at the
grocery stores and eat for
dinner.

2. Life Cycle
• Fertile eggs take 21 days to hatch.
• Chicks hatch, are vaccinated, and
incubated.
• Taken to chicken houses where
• the flocks live together.
-- Flock is a large group of birds.
– Over 20,000 chicks may live together in the
houses.
• Chickens are kept until they are 6
weeks old.
• Chickens are picked up and taken
to the processor to be prepared for
sale in stores.

3. Chicken Houses
• Floor is covered with dry pine
shavings.
• Feed and water are available
for the chicks to enjoy.
• Houses are heated because
the chicks do not have enough
feathers to stay warm, when they
get older the temperature is lowered.
• Houses have fans to circulate
the air and to bring in fresh air.

4. Poultry Equipment Used On
Broiler Farms

5. Broiler houses & equipment are constantly
being updated and improved. A poultry house
may be used for 25 years or more, however.

6. This new broiler house is 40 feet wide and
500 feet long. It will have 22,000 broiler
chickens stocked during each flock.

7. Most farms have two or more houses for growing
broiler chickens. Each flock of chickens is grown
for about eight & one half weeks.

8. Cool cell pad for cooling.

9. The cool cell has water flowing through it to
create the evaporative style of cooling.

10. Recycle pump for cool cell system.

11. Two layers of cool cell pads with two feet of
space between.

12. The funnel shape allows fans to move
greater amounts of air.

13. This sensor replaces the old style
thermometer and thermostat.

14. Fans in operation with the tunnel ventilation
system.

15. This propane gas furnace is part of the heating
system for this house. Five of these heaters are in
each house.

16. These radiant brooders are used with the gas
furnaces to warm the half of the house that is
heated during the first two weeks.

17. Propane gas is stored in 1000 gallon tanks
at each house.

18. The half-house curtain is lowered during the first
two weeks so that only half of the house is heated.

19. Central control panel that controls every
system in the house.

20. These over-ride devices
allow the grower to manually control the
heating and cooling.

21. This alarm system sounds a siren when
anything goes wrong inside the house.

22. Two feed bins are required by most poultry
companies to store feed for the chickens.

23. These feed bins have see-through covers at the
bottom to monitor the flow of feed to the auger.

24. The feed hopper in the house holds the feed
before it goes out through the auger & into the
feed pans.

25. Feed goes through the auger lines & drops
into each feed pan for the chickens to eat.

26. The motor on the end of the feeder line turns the
auger inside to move the feed down the line.

27. The drop-tube is turned down during the first week
of growth to allow feed to fall into a movable tray to
be more accessible to the baby chicks.

28. These feed trays have been taken up, washed,
stacked & stored after being used under the drop
tubes of the feeder.

29. The drop-tubes are turned to the side to
close them when not in use.

30. Feeder lines are raised weekly with a winch and
cable system. This is done to maintain correct
feed pan height as chickens grow.

31. Nipple-valve drinkers are used to provide a
constant supply of fresh water. These drinkers are
also raised weekly as chickens grow.

32. This control valve for the drinkers allows the
grower to adjust pressure as the chicks grow and
to flush the entire drinker line if needed.

33. This medication system allows for medicines
to be administered through the water lines.

34. Lighting is provided by incandescent lights
with dimmer switches.

35. A row of florescent lights also along the center of
the ceiling helps to provide proper lighting.

36. All of the hanging equipment is raised or
lowered easily with winches and pulleys.

37. This small computer box allows the poultry
company’s service person to connect a portable
computer and check conditions (temperature,
static pressure, etc.) for every day of the past
week.

38. A daily mortality chart is the record of livability of
the flock & provides important information to the
grower and the poultry company.

39. A stand-by generator provides emergency power
to all houses if there is a power outage.

40. This stand-by generating system is equipped to
automatically start in case of a power outage.

41. Most poultry companies have restrictions for entry
into the poultry houses to help prevent the spread
of diseases.

42. A loader is used to clean out the litter after growing
the chickens. The litter is spread on pastures as a
source of fertilizer. In some cases, poultry litter is
mixed with grain & fed to beef cattle.

43. Because of the high amount of automated
equipment used on a broiler farm, labor is greatly
reduced and the grower has more time to do other
things.

44. Summary
We have identified equipment for the
following:
cooling heating
feeding watering
lighting ventilation
medication alarms
house monitoring

45. The End